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SECTOR FORECASTING

5 Trends Shaping The Future

Of Architecture
Architects from 2015s most innovative companies look into their crystal balls
and divine the ways the built environment will evolve.

1/6 Steve McConnell, managing partner at NBBJ, says architectural design is

moving from paying a lot of attention to the artifactthe physical thingto a greater
emphasis of the opportunity represented when people gather. He points to the
firms Tencent campus (pictured) where NBBJ mapped the pathways taken
throughout the building by employees to maximize intersections. VIA TENCENT

BY SHAUNACY FERRO 03.03.15 | 8:00 AM

What does the future of the architecture industry hold? We asked experts from
some of the worlds most innovative companies to look into their crystal balls
and divine the ways that the built environment will evolve over the next five
years. Largely optimistic, these trends indicate a rosy future for the structures
that surround us every day. Architects predict that these buildings wont be as
flashy, but theyll be far more useful on an everyday basis (the starchitect-
designed roof leak is so last century). And they may be built of a material you
havent even heard of yet.

Here are some of the ways that architects expect the field will change in the
near future:
VIA TENCENT

Starchitecture will dim.

Steve McConnell, managing partner at NBBJ, says architectural design is

moving from paying a lot of attention to the artifactthe physical thingto a
greater emphasis of the opportunity represented when people gather. He
describes this way of working with clients as almost in a realm of strategic
partnering with businesses.

For instance, for the firms Tencent campus, where the client wanted to
encourage spontaneous run-ins between employees, NBBJ mapped the
pathways that would be taken throughout the building by thousands of
employees, designing the building to maximize intersections between those
paths.

Julian Weyer, partner at the Denmark-based C.F. Mller Architects, agrees

that clients are more interested in the thinking behind design, rather than just
chasing after starchitecture. Theres a counter trend which focuses more on
meaning, he explains. Why do we even construct anything? That can be
more fruitfulwhat do we actually need, rather than whos going to design it.
A rammed earth zoo in New Zealand by Assembly Architects Limited.

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Architecture will be more collaborative.

As clients become more interested in thinking outside the physical box of the
building, architects will need to collaborate with more experts from different
fieldslike NBBJs in-house brain scientist. We are already seeing today
broad design teams that include social anthropologists and environmental
scientists who are creating nurturing, sustainable and meaningful
environments, says Jay Brotman of Svigals + Partners, a New Haven,
Connecticut-based firm. In the future we will see policy makers joining these
teams which will [create] a more holistic perspective of the built environment
and effect broader change.

The divide between public and private space will melt away.

Going beyond the client perspective, theres also always a responsibility to

the public as well, says C.F. Mllers Julian Weyer. In constructing a Swedish
high-rise apartment building, the firm explored how different functions of the
building might be expanded to benefit not just its residents, but the city as a
whole. They decided to make some spaces open to the public within the
building, like a recycling facility. Can we invite the public domain? That sort of
thing is all part of that analysis, he says.

VI
A TENCENT

Chinese architecture will be more subtle.

Known for some of the tallest and most unusual-looking architecture in the
world, China has proven to be a fertile market for architecture in recent years.
 You could build almost anything, and it would be commercially viable, Steve
McConnell of NBBJ says. Now, he sees the market trending toward more
sophisticated design as the country urbanizes and the real estate industry
gets stronger.
TONYV3112 VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

Were seeing another wave of market maturity thats going to see more
mature design work and understanding of [a buildings] performance, he says.
He sees comments by Chinese leadership, such as the presidents recent
tirade against weird architecture like the Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV
headquarters) as a sign that going forward, Chinese projects will face greater
scrutiny over their utility, rather than their flashy looks.

You might work in a tower made of woodor mud.

BERG/CF MOLLER
C.F. Mller is currently at work on one of the worlds tallest timber skyscrapers.
The newfound availability of cross-laminated timber panels, engineered to be
stronger and more fire-resistant than traditional wood, has allowed architects
to build taller and taller with timber. But wood probably isnt the only ancient
building material we will rethink in the next few years, Weyer predicts.

There are new methods constantly being tested, he says, like rammed earth,
an ancient technique (using a dirt mixture) that is still used to build houses in
places like Australia, South Africa, and the southwest United States.
Technological advances in wood/timber construction have made it possible
for us to re-image some well-known building types, he explains. I would
expect that other technologies will have a similar impact in the near future.